Monday, September 18, 2006

A Tabloid Baby comes into his F*ing own

The original Tabloid Baby generation is getting older by the day, and as its innovators move on to new fields and ventures in the delayed final chapters of their careers, the alcohol-soaked torch has been passed to a smarter, cleaner-living group of 21st century scions.

Down under in Australia, across the States, in and about Europe and even serving in Iraq, are various Brennans, Dunleavys, Kearnses, Darwins, McWilliamses, Elliotts, and Pelusos, who were born and raised in, around and after the first Tabloid Television era and are now striking out out on their own.

And few have made as impressive and unlikely hit on the cultural scene as the original Baby Precious of the brief, shining Hard Copy heyday, Eames Yates, Jr., scion of a maverick television journalism dynasty and son of the great rambling raconteur Eames Yates, who worked on and appeared in his father’s landmark HBO documentary film, Dead Blue, and was the first of the new generation to question Tabloid Baby’s literary description of a loved one, in this case his dear Dad, recalled as ”a large red-faced rambling ranch of a man; the big fat, thirty-something black sheep…a heavy drinking, heavy eating, heavy smoking heavy boy—a fuckup” (but a hero nonetheless).

Eames Yates Jr. stepped aboard the tabloid television express as a bright and beloved intern in the offices of the ill-fated revival of A Current Affair (thanks again, Roger), set off on a journey through India and, at 20, has somehow wound up as a personality on MTV Desi, an MTV spin-off network targeted at South Asian Americans including Indian, Pakistani, and Bengali Americans.

Just as his father rode roughshod across America, the tall, genial Eames Jr. wanders wherever he pleases in a popular show called F*ing with Eames.

Through the wonders of YouTube and cross-pollination, the WASPy Bollywood hero is now crossing over to the mainstream MTV market.

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"Sad, funny, undeniably authentic, Tabloid Baby tells the tale of what befell too much of mainstream television news over the past couple of decades as the bad drove out the good."
--Mike Wallace, 60 Minutes

"Burt was there for the birthing of tabloid, he became the heart of the genre, and now he's written the bible."
--Maury Povich

"Dear Burt: While you always had quite a flair for the dramatic, you never had much regard for the truth... Apparently you can't be bothered to read anything carefully. Maybe that is why you, like O'Reilly, make half your crap up.
Glad to hear you finally got sober." -- Barry Nolan, 04.12.08